9-mile diversion WILL be introduced during Burnham road closure

A busy road between Berrow and Burnham-On-Sea will be closed for nine days after all – with motorists being diverted along a nine-mile diversion route, it has been confirmed this week.

Burnham-On-Sea.com reported last week that Somerset County Council had cancelled its plans to shut Berrow Road during February while it builds a new pedestrian crossing there, however Wessex Water has since said that sewer repairs will be going ahead, requiring the closure after all.

A 22-metre long stretch of Berrow Road, near the junction with Golf Links Road, will be closed from February 9th. Somerset County Council will be introducing a nine-mile diversion around East Brent, shown in green on the map above.

The County Council has this week apologised to residents for the confusion, with a spokesman telling Burnham-On-Sea.com: “In order to bring both a new pedestrian crossing to the Berrow Road community, and for important work by Wessex Water to be carried out at the same time, we had planned to close the road, and introduce a diversion.”

“While further negotiations locally had then meant our work on the pedestrian crossing could be completed by simply using traffic signals, Wessex Water’s sewer repairs still require a reduced road closure. This is now expected to run between Monday 9th and Tuesday 17th February 2015.”

“Work on the new pedestrian crossing, which does not require a road closure, will now start on Monday 23rd February, due to a delay in the delivery of materials.”

“We apologise for this confusion to residents, and are very grateful to them for their patience. Any official diversion route has to follow the same classification of road as that being closed to ensure it is suitable for all classes of vehicles, such as HGVs.”

The closure has been criticised by local residents this week. Berrow Parish Council Clerk Lynn Smith told Burnham-On-Sea.com on Monday: “The Wessex Water closure is going to cause a large amount of disruption for those travelling between Burnham and Berrow and Brean.”

“It will mean, for example, that parents of children at Berrow School could have an extra 15-20 minutes of journey time each day for those living in Burnham. Many people have been in contact with us at the Parish Council to express how unhappy they are and we will be sending our comments on to the company.”

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